White admits Nogueira staved off retirement at UFC 134, now free to think title run

RIO DE JANEIRO – As impossible as it may seem for a man most consider to be one of the greatest heavyweights in MMA history, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira’s (33-6-1 MMA, 4-2 UFC) UFC 134 win over Brendan Schaub (8-2 MMA, 4-2 UFC) may have been the single most important victory of his career.

You see, that’s the win that allowed him to keep fighting.

While “Minotauro” remains adamant that retirement from the sport never crossed his mind despite a few recent setbacks, UFC president Dana White admitted he was already prepared to have “the talk” with the MMA legend, and a loss to Schaub may have meant Nogueira’s end in the UFC.

“I talked to Nogueira after his last fight and talked to him about retiring,” White told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “He was pretty pissed off about that. That’s why when I came out and was talking about Tito (Ortiz), and Tito won that fight, Nogueira was one of the guys that really jumped on Tito’s side and said, ‘Listen, he doesn’t make this [expletive] decisions. We do.’ But it’s not true. I do make those decisions.

“I’m not going to let this thing be boxing. When a guy is done, we know when he’s done. I don’t want to make one dollar of that kind of money. I don’t.”

With 10 years under his belt as UFC president and co-owner, White is now beginning to face the reality of pushing some less-than-willing fighters out of the spotlight based on diminishing skills. UFC Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell was the most high-profile of those fighters to date, and White essentially convinced him to quit competing after suffering a string of uncharacteristic knockout losses.

Following the evening’s post-fight press conference, Nogueira told a group of Portuguese-speaking reporters that concerns over his physical well-being were somewhat understandable, but that his drive to compete has not waned in the least.

“Of course (I never considered retirement),” Nogueira said in his native language. “People, I made a tremendous effort to overcome – to come back to fighting, to come back to fight in Brazil – so I would not look at this fight as my test.

“I had three surgeries; I’m only human. I was on crutches. I have callouses on my hands because I spent five months on crutches. Three-and-a-half months ago, I got rid of the crutches and started training. Many people didn’t believe in me. I think the Brazilian people should believe in me more.”

But in truth, it wasn’t just White or event the Brazilian people that doubted the legendary Nogueira. It was nearly everyone, save for maybe the, ahem, 35-year-old Nogueira, himself.

But something special happened in Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena. Nogueira was in vintage form – a vintage perhaps even circa the PRIDE era – and he earned a stunning TKO over Schaub in a little more than three minutes. The sold-out crowd, which was on its feet from the moment Nogueira’s entrance music first hit the speakers, reached a fever pitch with the result.

Nogueira admitted everything that existed outside of the cage didn’t even seem like a reality until his hand was raised.

“I hate to admit it, but when I was walking to the ring, I was super nervous,” Nogueira admitted. “I was so nervous that I couldn’t really look up to the crowd. It was only after I finished the fight that I actually looked up to the crowd and realized and saw just how much noise was being made.”

With the win, Nogueira improved to 2-2 in his past four fights. But in a shocking twist of events, post-fight questions didn’t center around whether it was time for Nogueira to walk away from the sport. Instead, the question was whether or not the former PRIDE champ and UFC interim champ would get another crack at gold.

And White didn’t flinch at the thought. In fact, he seemed to add fuel to the fire. There’s no set number of wins Nogueira needs to get back in contention. It’s simply a matter of picking the right opponent to get into contention.

“It’s not a matter of how many victories,” White said. “It’s who he fights.”

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